How to get media coverage for yourself or your art studio

By komicer, 1 Jul 2019

Filling up the office walls. pic.twitter.com/2dAVsnYIve

— CDS @ Doujima C57 (@collateralds) February 7, 2018

Why should you even bother to get media coverage?

Media coverage can form a part of your or your studio’s branding and public relations strategy.

Getting interviewed or featured on media outlets increases the visibility of yourself and your brand. Introducing your story and what you do to readers may get some to contact you and ask, ‘Hey, I like that art work of yours! Can you do something similar for me?’

If these media outlets are online, there are SEO benefits to backlinks or brand mentions of yourself or your studio. Google may rank your site higher when others link back to, or even just mention you.

For us, it is also a nice ego-trip to see yourself being featured and talked about by others. Whenever possible, we also try to keep a physical copy of our mentions to display in the office.

What research should I do before reaching out to the media?

From a branding point of view, it is probably prudent to do a little bit of research on media outlets before you even approach them. The publication or online outlet should have some kind of relevance to your target market, and reflect well on your brand. You DO NOT WANT to be featured in a publication that goes against your brand value, such as Racist Monthly! (I made that title up, but you know what I mean.)

From an SEO point of view, you might even want to delve deeper into the publication’s reach. Sometimes, I compare our own website’s Alexa rankings or social media following to the media outlet I am looking at first.

A new blog that is just starting up might not be as good for your site’s online visibility as a major national news outlet. However, that is assuming that you are absolutely swamped with giving too many interviews. If not, you might as well have a chat with that new startup and support each other in the process.

Our pre-professional media coverage

As a relatively established illustration studio with a niche in anime, it is not uncommon for us to be featured on publications and such. We are honoured that publications found our story interesting enough to feature. I recall that the very first mention of Collateral Damage Studios was in the Straits Times when they were doing a story on doujin circles.

Another notable mention in our local news in our pre-professional days was on Channel NewsAsia. It was also a story about doujin circles in Singapore. Ironically, we said that we were unlikely to go professional in that article.

Other mentions were made in Japanator, and Otakuzine, a magazine from the Philippines.

Culturepush: Spotted! Setsuri, WaHa, Space Penguin, Usanekorin, Haimerejzero, TC

Otakuzine: Special Feature: Collateral Damage Studios, Issue 79, 2013

Our studio’s more recent media mentions

Here are some of the more notable mentions we have received over the years. They include media mentions of the studio as a whole, and mentions of our individual members.

Some articles are rather old and can no longer be found online. (That’s what archiving webpages on web.archive.org is for.) For those, we try to provide as close a replacement as possible.

This full list will be updated occasionally!

Today Online: IE11’s anime mascot was made in S’pore, 8 Nov 2013

*SCAPE IT: StARTing UP, Issue 9, May – June 2014

C-SMile: About CDS, Issue 6, Spring 2015

Otaku-Otaku: シンガポールの同人サークル「C.D.S²」のオフィスにお邪魔させてもらった話, 19 Jun 2015

Tokyo Pop Guide: Nicowaha and Usanekorin, Vol.2 2016

ImagineFX: Studio Profile: Collateral Damage Studios, Issue 135, June 2016

Our individual artists such as Haimerejzero and Usanekorin have been featured on ImagineFX too! And Space Penguin and WaHa have also written articles for the magazine.

that Content Guy: Interview: The team behind Internet Explorer’s Inori Aizawa, 14 Nov 2016

The New Paper: Their dream came true when Microsoft came calling, 21 Nov 2016

Youth.sg: Jobs 101: Illustrator , 13 Jul 2017

A-List: Singapore’s Anime Aces, 26 Aug 2017

Drawfolio: Interview with illustrators: Collateral Damage Studios, 29 Aug 2017

@GuosongChan was featured in the @NEO_Magazine Issue 185! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/iGqBPOtL4y

— CDS @ Doujima C57 (@collateralds) May 9, 2019

NEO MAG: The Best of Reader Talent, Issue 185 among others, 2018 to 2019!

So far, we’ve gotten GreenTeaNeko, Usanekorin, Desti, Mr. 2D, and GSong-chan featured in that publication.

YP.SG: How These Local Art Enthusiasts Earned Their Big Break With Microsoft , 9 Jan 2018

Red Hare Studios Gaming Blog: Spotlight Interview: Komicer from Collateral Damage Studios, 26 Jan 2018

TheOASG: An Interview with WaHa, Space Penguin on Artist Habits, Influences, and Growth, 30 Apr 2018

Vulcanpost: They Never Gave Up Doodling – Now ‘Draw’ A Salary Working For The World’s Biggest Anime Conventions, 1 Aug 2018

The Geekly Grind: NYCC 2018 SPOTLIGHT: COLLATERAL DAMAGE STUDIOS, 11 Oct 2018

Asian Entrepreneur: KC Ng, General Manager of Collateral Damage Studios, 7 Nov 2018

Clip Studio Paint Success Story: Better and Faster: Using Clip Studio Paint To Create Concept Art, 14 Dec 2018

Mothership: Key visuals in largest US anime convention were created by S’poreans, 26 Jun 2019

Campus Magazine: Art, Anime, Action! Fulfilling Artist Dreams at Collateral Damage Studios,  4 July 2019

CG Lounge: Interview with UsanekoRin, 29 July 2019

Akadot TV: From Doujin to Professional Illustrator, 29 Aug 2019

Authority Magazine: “From Avocation To Vocation: How I Turned My Hobby Into A Career” With Ng Kian Chuan, 8 Sep 2019

Thrive Global: Ng Kian Chuan: “Pricing is not everything, 6 May 2020

Anime Herald: WAHA and Usanekorin of Collateral Damage Studios talks with Anime Herald, 14 Nov 2019

The Smart Local Singapore: 7 Ways To Entertain Kids At Home While Supporting Smaller Local Businesses, 14 Apr 2020

Geek Culture: Pokémon Champion Simone Lim Gets Congratulatory Artwork By Singapore Illustration Studio, 24 Apr 2020

LUCK-IT: How and Why I’m Making A Colouring Book For Adults, 27 July 2020

Digital Arts from IDG: Studio Collateral Damage’s anime art is cuddlier than its name suggests, 03 Aug 2020

Lake Coloring Blog: “It has been a fascinating journey.”, 3 Sep 2020

Anime Trending: Interview: Collateral Damage Studios, 11 Feb 2021

Comic Book Resources: 10 Bizarre Products You’d Never Guess Had Original Anime Mascots, 02 Jan 2022

The Beat Asia: Singaporean Illustrator Desti on Her Colourful Journey and Love for Anime, 28 Mar 2022

NUS CAS: Extravaganza 2022 Artist Interview: Rachta Lin, Poopiepuff and Carillus!, 04 Apr 2022

SCREENSHOT: A search for perfection: Why does the food in anime look so tasty?, 21 Mar 2023

联合早报: 作品使用生成式AI 创作者是否要通知受众？, 18 May 2024

Take a proactive approach to reaching out to the media

Sometimes, the writers come to you. But rather than sit back and hope for them to approach you, I find that it is better to take a more pro-active approach.

Be willing to take the first step yourself. There is no real harm in asking. So I’ll admit it: we proactively seek out opportunities for the studio or for our individual artists to be featured in the media. Sometimes it is as simple as emailing media professionals or journalists and pitching your story to them. That’s what professional PR firms do after all!

At other times, it might require a bit of digging. Hunt around professional sites such as Linkedin or do some Google-fu to find the right person to contact. If you are speaking to a particularly articulate customer who is asking many questions during conventions, they might be writers or journalists. Instead of trying to bat them away, you can actively engage them and ask for their business cards.

Tailor your studio’s story to each publication

It is important to tailor your pitch according to the publication. You don’t always have to restrict yourself to the standard “how I became an artist” story to creative publications. If you are looking at a magazine targeted towards women, you might highlight your identity as a woman (assuming you are, of course!) making a name for yourself in a male-dominated industry.

Or perhaps you can target publications for the rich and wealthy. For them, you can highlight the kind of luxury crafts you created that will look good with their expensive Rolexes. A little research on what each publication wants goes a long way!

Sometimes, instead of pitching just yourself, you can do a collective pitch together with your fellow illustrator or artist friends. Perhaps an article listing who’s who in the local doujin community?

tl;dr

Want to get a mention on websites, newspapers or even magazines?

It really helps to be proactive and to think long-term in your approach. Do your research and get contacts. It’s not just about the thrill of 15 minutes of fame, but it might just be the ticket towards landing your next interesting project and leaving your legacy.